This article describes the experiences of a librarian in a tutor/facilitator role immersed within a mainstream problem‐based learning (PBL) curriculum at the University of New…
Abstract
This article describes the experiences of a librarian in a tutor/facilitator role immersed within a mainstream problem‐based learning (PBL) curriculum at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. The role of tutor might be a suitable non‐traditional role for librarians. Tutoring turns out to be an entirely different role from traditional teaching. This tutor role requires practicing reciprocity, patience and commitment. This role has provided a profound understanding of the curriculum as it relates to library and informatics services, earned respect from non‐librarians, and prompted one to re‐think the integrated model of library instruction. Librarians willing to meet the challenges of tutoring can succeed in this non‐traditional role with the many associated benefits.
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The paper seeks to describe the EBL process in sufficient detail that the readers can apply it to their own professional practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to describe the EBL process in sufficient detail that the readers can apply it to their own professional practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of a narrative literature review.
Findings
The EBL process can be summarized through its five steps: formulate a clearly defined, relevant, and answerable question; search for an answer in both the published and unpublished literature, plus any other authoritative resources, for the best available evidence; critically appraise the evidence; assess the relative value of expected benefits and costs of any decided upon action plan; and evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan.
Originality/value
References for readers to pursue more in‐depth research into any particular step or a specific aspect of the EBL process are provided. The EBL process assists librarians in applying the best available evidence to answering the more important questions facing their practice, their institutions, and the profession. This evidence can become the basis for making sound decisions.
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The paper seeks to provide an overview and update of thinking in relation to the theory and practice of formulation of answerable research questions within evidence based…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to provide an overview and update of thinking in relation to the theory and practice of formulation of answerable research questions within evidence based information practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the healthcare and information literature on question formulation, augmented by structured and purposive internet searches.
Findings
Although a few key authors have published extensively on all aspects of the evidence‐based information practice process, including question formulation, there is little in the way of empirical research.
Research limitations/implications
In the absence of an empirical research base from within the specific domain of information practice, this conceptual paper extrapolates findings from healthcare research to general librarianship.
Practical implications
This article models the process of question formulation using a proposed conceptual framework (SPICE) and encourages practitioners to identify their own practice‐based questions.
Originality/value
This is the first article specifically to address question formulation for a general (i.e. non‐health) library audience.
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Seeks to spread the concept of evidence‐based practice beyond the health sector.
Abstract
Purpose
Seeks to spread the concept of evidence‐based practice beyond the health sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have worked with physicians and nurses and offer their observations from being part of the development of the skills and tools of evidence‐based practice.
Findings
Librarians need to increase their reliance on sound evidence to support their programs and services. They also need to become more active in producing and publishing evidence for their peers and others outside the profession. The authors feel that librarians have the abilities to do this, especially if supported by their organizations and institutions with respect to education and resources.
Originality/value
The paper should be of use in the development of evidence‐based librarianship.
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The study of the diffusion of innovations into libraries has become a cottage industry of sorts, as libraries have always provided a fascinating test-bed of nonprofit institutions…
Abstract
The study of the diffusion of innovations into libraries has become a cottage industry of sorts, as libraries have always provided a fascinating test-bed of nonprofit institutions attempting improvement through the use of new policies, practices, and assorted apparatus (Malinconico, 1997). For example, Paul Sturges (1996) has focused on the evolution of public library services over the course of 70 years across England, while Verna Pungitore (1995) presented the development of standardization of library planning policies in contemporary America. For the past several decades, however, the study of diffusion in libraries has tended to focus on the implementation of information technologies (e.g., Clayton, 1997; Tran, 2005; White, 2001) and their associated competencies (e.g., Marshall, 1990; Wildemuth, 1992), the improvements in performance associated with their use (e.g., Damanpour, 1985, 1988; Damanpour & Evan, 1984), and ways to manage resistance to technological changes within the library environment (e.g., Weiner, 2003).
As the small Southern African country of Lesotho grapples with implementing one of the five largest dam-development projects in the world today, the local people impacted confront…
Abstract
As the small Southern African country of Lesotho grapples with implementing one of the five largest dam-development projects in the world today, the local people impacted confront the challenges of resettlement, loss of means of production, and changed access to natural resources. This chapter reveals the ways in which the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) serves to reorganize and commodify rural resources for the benefit of the nation-state in gendered ways. Based on interviews of rural households conducted during 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lesotho, this chapter analyzes impacted people's experiences of the gendered implications of the extraction and sale of water from the rural highlands of Lesotho to South Africa. This case study documents the gendered environmental and social impacts of the LHWP on local communities, and illuminates the everyday lived experiences of the affected people as they effectively subsidize this international project with their environmental resources, labor, money, and, in some cases, their nutritional status.
Helen Partridge and Gillian Hallam
The purpose of this paper is to consider how library education can best incorporate the profession's emerging interest in evidence‐based practice (EBP) whilst ensuring that the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider how library education can best incorporate the profession's emerging interest in evidence‐based practice (EBP) whilst ensuring that the educational experience is meaningful to the contemporary library student.
Design/methodology/appraoch
A learning and teaching model developed by the Queensland University of Technology will be presented as a case study on how the library education curriculum can be developed to incorporate a focus on EBP whilst catering to the unique learning style of the millennial student.
Findings
To effectively meet the needs of the millennial student, library educators must develop their curriculum to include a real world activities and perspective, be customisable and flexible, incorporate regular feedback, use technology, provide trusted guidance, include the opportunity for social and interactive learning, be visual and kinaesthetic, and include communication that is real, raw, relevant and relational.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the current discussion on how EBP can be integrated effectively into the contemporary library curriculum in general, and meet the learning needs of the millennial student in particular.
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Raymond G. McInnis and Michael Turner
Many people fear the approach of 1984. Why? Because in their minds too many of George Orwell's dark prophecies in his 1948 novel, 1984, appear to be coming true.
The purpose of this paper is to periodize the history of the US senior market segment, a large, lucrative target market.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to periodize the history of the US senior market segment, a large, lucrative target market.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a four‐step adaptation of an existing framework, periodizing the segment's history into three phases: independence phase, mid‐nineteenth century‐1935; growing affluence phase, 1935‐1965; and maturity phase, 1965 to present.
Findings
The senior market began with urbanization resulting from the industrial revolution. The growth of private pensions, two World Wars, a variety of governmental programs such as the GI Bill and Social Security and Medicare Acts, political power resulting from the establishment of groups such as the American Association of Retired Persons, and increasing stress on inclusiveness in marketing accelerated the growth of the market. As baby boomers age, the market is sure to grow in scope and market power.
Research limitations/implications
Time and space limitations require that this paper focus on the senior market only in the USA, and analyze only broad activities, events, and trends.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the study of marketing history and market segmentation in particular by analyzing the origins and growth of this very large and unique market segment – largely due to the fact that it currently represents about 12 percent of the US population, unique in that all Americans are or likely will be members. It illustrates the confluence of government policy, marketers' never‐ending drive to find new target markets via product differentiation, and the importance of demographic change.